Discretionary powers were handed to the small secret
service branch which is controlled by Bright and myself. Orden
was prevented from reaching the Foreign Office and was rendered
for a time incapable. The consideration of our further action
with regard to him was to depend upon his attitude. Owing, no
doubt, to some slight error in Bright's treatment. Orden has
escaped from the place of safety in which he had been placed. He
is now at large, and his story, together with the packet, will
probably be in the hands of the Foreign Office some time
to-night."
"Giving them," Cross remarked grimly, "the chance to get in the
first blow--warrants for high treason, eh, against the
twenty-three of us?"
"I don't fear that," Fenn asserted, "not if we behave like
sensible men. My proposal is that we anticipate, that one of us
sees the Prime Minister to-morrow morning and lays the whole
position before him."
"Without the terms," Furley observed.
"I know exactly what they will be," Fenn pointed out. "The
trouble, of course, is that the missing packet contains the
signature of the three guarantors. The packet, no doubt, will be
in the hands of the Foreign Office by to-morrow. The Prime
Minister can verify our statements. We present our ultimatum a
little sooner than we intended, but we get our blow in first and
we are ready."
The Bishop leaned forward in his place.
"Forgive me if I intervene for one moment," he begged. "You say
that Julian Orden has escaped.
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